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Financial Literacy

Remembrance, Friday the 13th, Financial Literacy and #MoneyStories

Remembrance Day passed Wednesday, for some it is a solemn day of reflection, for others a day off. As I have mentioned before, I work with former military folks, and I certainly thank them for their service to the country. I was also glad that it didn’t rain on the folks in downtown Ottawa.

It is Friday the 13th today, so for those concerned about bad karma or bad luck, tread carefully and hopefully the day will pass with little or few major catastrophes. For those of you still buoyed by the election results here is something to put things in perspective from MacLean’s Magazine Chart of the day: How much do MPs earn? They don’t include their expense accounts either.

Remember that November is financial literacy month and you should be looking for posts and tweets with the hash tags #FLM2015 and #CountMeInCA on them. There has been some great stuff already posted, so keep watching and see what other useful things you can learn about money and finances.

My Writings for Week Ending November 13th

I did write something this week that is important, and that is about the Disability Tax Credit Certificate, and how to reapply, please make sure you pass this info on to anyone who you think might need advice in that area:

Facebook Post of the Week

Remember that Vanguard really is one of the 800 pound gorillas that the market is going to listen to if they start flexing their collective might in the board room, but how do they represent their ETF shareholders best interests? Interesting quandary.

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Financial Literacy

Financial Literacy, New Cabinet, Hydro One and #MoneyStories

Do you realize that November is Financial Literacy month here in Canada? This means more interesting articles this month from some of your favorite authors banging home some of the more important topics in Financial Literacy. A good month to start reading some new finance sites and learning more about things you might not know enough about.

It’s a bold move on Mr. Trudeau’s part to have chosen a Cabinet that is made up of half women. However, only time will tell how successful this decision will be. The new finance minister undoubtedly has a tough challenge ahead of him. He must choose between blaming the previous government for leaving an empty treasury or resorting to creative accounting. Sadly, this is a common practice among elected officials.

The Hydro One IPO is coming up very soon, with a great deal of hub-bub and foofera. Is it a good thing? Is it a good deal? Should you invest in it? I most likely will invest in it, as it will most likely be reflected in one of my core Index Funds, but I will not be buying the stock directly.

My Writings for Week Ending November 6th

A busy week for me this week at home so not a great deal of new content for your Financial Literacy learning, but still some new content:

  • For those non-Church goers out there Sunday was All Saints day and I did manage to put out a best of tweets post with All Saints Money Tweets , some interesting stuff in there.
  • The one new post for the week was a play on the assertive way many presenters try to convince you of the “truthiness” of their statement with 99.9% of Financial Bloggers Agree, I was thinking of title’ing it 30 Helens Agree (financially), but changed my mind (Kids in the Hall are always a fun thematic premise to work from, I could write about these are the Marks in Finance I know…) .
  • I have talked about Financial Literacy in the past so here is last years start with What is Financial Literacy.
Read More »Financial Literacy, New Cabinet, Hydro One and #MoneyStories
Scary Financial Tales

Spooky Prices, Falling Back, and #MoneyStories

Halloween is tomorrow, and it seems to have become yet another excuse for folks to lose their minds decorating their houses. I think a significant growth industry would be convertible home decorations, which can change from Halloween to Christmas with a simple switch. The lights should be easy enough, but I am unsure how you might change a 10-foot-tall inflated ghost into a 10-foot inflated Rudolph? Did you realize in 2011, 13.3 million Canadian homes gave out Candy? That is a lot of homes (and even more Candy).

Clock

Time to Fall Back !

Some very spooky food prices this week as well, OK, last week, but I note that no one seemed to really care that much about it. The election is, however, a hot topic with many of our regular contributors in terms of how the change in government will affect their lives (and yours as well).

Also, remember that on Sunday morning (really early) the clocks go back an hour, which means that if you don’t do anything, you will be early to work on Monday morning. The only way I remember is Spring Forward, Fall Back. The one nice thing about most technology is that they change their clocks themselves (except for older technology which changes on the wrong days).

For me, it is a lovely weekend ahead as well as the Rugby World Cup Final on Saturday, with New Zealand playing Australia. I think this time, I will cheer for the All-Blacks.

My Writings for Week Ending October 30th

It’s another fun Halloween ahead, or as we call it at my house, my youngest daughter’s birthday. Halloween is an OK time to have your birthday. You don’t end up getting short-changed on presents as much (like those unfortunate folks born on Christmas Day or around then).

Facebook Post of the Week

What do you mean there can be negative interest rates? In Sweden this may well be the case!

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More cowbell

Election Reflections, Loose Money and #MoneyStories

Well, that was a very interesting election result that I suspected might happen. However, it does make for a very interesting future (note I am not saying good or evil, just interesting). Trudeau is PM, and it was back to the Future Day on Wednesday? Welcome to the ’80s? Guess I need to find my Nash the Slash T-shirts?

For the direct money view, we go to the Globe, which explains 9 Things that the Liberal Victory will change in your financial life. I am going to miss that income splitting with my spouse, maybe they can bring it back later, or I may have to retire to do it with my pension. Everything else is kind of meh to me, but the $2000 back on my taxes last year was mighty sweet. You realize these new MP’s will be paid $167,400 per year, right?

One of the big topics is how exactly is Mr. Trudeau going to change the TFSA limit back to what it was? A general amnesty for a year? Really not sure, but it should be interesting to see how he treads gently around the topic.

What happened to the NDP? The Jack Layton Party returned to being the NDP again, and are back to their normal historic seat counts, which is too bad in some ways, and good in other ways (remembering Bob Rae in Ontario for one thing). Interesting that the popular vote levels are not that different, but all it takes is a few areas to change their previous voting habits (i.e. Quebec) and voila, a change of government.

In Ottawa, there was much rejoicing in the demise of the Harper Government (in the Public Service area, remember I am a Civil Servant) and here is one of the reasons that Ottawa was part of the Red Tide, an open letter from Mr. Trudeau to Public Servants. I may do an article on how Mr. Clement’s plan to revise the sick leave system in the Public Service might have been a good idea. However, it had some flaws.

It was pointed out to me that Mr. Harper’s hair was never really mentioned in the election (even though Mr. Trudeau’s had its own catchphrase “Nice Hair Though”), but am I the only one who said it looks like LEGO hair?

In celebration of the Liberal victory, the Bank of Canada did not change their key overnight rate, and money continues to be as loose as can be (all right, it had nothing to do with the election). You should really read the Monetary Policy Report for 2015 as well. The bank’s exact statement was:

The Bank judges that the risks around the inflation profile are roughly balanced. Meanwhile, as financial vulnerabilities in the household sector continue to edge higher, risks to financial stability are evolving as expected. Taking all of these developments into consideration, the Bank judges that the current stance of monetary policy remains appropriate. Therefore, the target for the overnight rate remains at 1/2 per cent.

My Writings for Week Ending October 23rd

I actually felt very re-energized by my attendance at CPFC15 (and am thinking I will be back next year), however, that still doesn’t expand my schedule, but I will be trying to write more soon. I did enjoy chatting with my peers and some very experienced writers and enjoyed the fellowship.

  • In Home Insurance: Three Strikes and You Are Out, I was pointing out that my mother’s home insurance was cancelled after three (major) events that she made insurance claims on, and that is the way home insurance works, so keep that in mind. Chime in the comments if you have your own stories in this area.
  • The Bank of Mom and Dad is a cautionary story about lending money to your kids (and family members in general) and how bankrupting one generation so the other can have a lovely house might not be the best idea.
  • I did check out my archives and found a classic, Top 5 Reasons You Are in Debt. It is a swerve post, as it is not what you think it is.

Facebook Post of the Week

Dave Ramsay does have a way of summing it up in one line

Read More »Election Reflections, Loose Money and #MoneyStories
Turkey Bacon

CPFC15, Election Day, Jays and #MoneyStories

Election day 2015 was quite exciting, but there was still a large number of great financial articles about other things too.

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